About the Owners

In 1999, Rick Emery's parents were approaching a time when they would need a senior-living community — and Rick and his wife, Shuree, decided to come back to Maine to build that for them.

The Emerys had spent a good portion of their careers in the retirement and assisted-living business out west, and they were ready to put the expertise they'd developed to work creating the kind of senior-living community in Brunswick to suit the standard of quality they wanted for their own family.

The Emerys transformed Rick's family's farm in Brunswick, which overlooked three-acre Moose Pond, and they designed a 51-apartment community to meet the housing, social, and healthcare needs of seniors who could live independently as well as those who needed assisted care.

Knowing that many senior couples are forced to live separately when one of them goes into assisted living — and certain they would not want that for their parents — the Emerys designed Sunnybrook Village to integrate three levels of assistance that its self-sufficient residents may come to need. This would allow couples to continue living together rather than getting separated, as they must in most senior communities.

Rick's parents — Sunnybrook Village's flagship residents — served as the Emery's benchmark. Reaching for the quality of life they wanted for their own parents, Rick and Shuree have developed a beautiful, well-staffed community; a distinctive lifestyle; attentive personal service; and robust amenities for all Sunnybrook's residents.

Sunnybrook has been home to hundreds of residents since 2003, and Rick's mother, Rita Pervier, is still among them.

"This is more than a community to me," says Rick. "This has become a big extended family, and I want the same for every resident here that I want for my own mother — so, when someone needs something, the answer is 'yes,' and we make it happen."

Rick and Shuree Emery

“We set out to help my own
Mom and Dad, and we've since helped many others.”

— Rick Emery